The rAmylase Project

The rAmylase Project is a unique set of ten self-contained laboratory experiments, kitted for teacher convenience. With The rAmylase Project Kits it is easy to pull together a unit, a semester, or a year-long course in biotechnology.

The kits can be used individually in a "plug'n'play" fashion to teach specific biotechnology techniques or, as a thematic unit that demonstrates how a commercially important biotechnology product, the amylase protein, is researched and manufactured. The rAmylase Project kits demonstrate that DNA is the flash but proteins are the cash of biotechnology.

This kit is designed to teach 8 groups of four students the principles of enzyme assays.
The kit contains the reagents to allow students to test for the presence and activity of 2 different types of amylase by:
Visualizing the breakdown of the starch substrate by the amylase enzym..

This kit is designed to teach 8 groups of four students the principles of Protein Electrophoresis.
The kit contains the reagents to allow students to:
Conduct a serial dilution of a stock amylase solution
Prepare samples for PAGE electrophoresis
Separate and distinguish proteins by elec..

This kit is designed to teach 8 groups of four students the principles of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR)
The kit contains the reagents to allow students to:
Set up multiple PCR reactions using pAmylase plasmid DNA and bacterial genomic DNA templates
Set up a PCR negative co..

This kit is designed to teach 8 groups of four students the principles of protein concentration estimation assays. The kit contains the reagents to allow students to:
Conduct a serial dilution of a stock amylase solution to create standards of known concentration
Use a Bradford protein assay..

This kit is designed to teach 8 groups of four students the principles of ELISA (Enzyme Linked ImmunoSorbent Assays).
The kit contains the reagents to allow students to:
Conduct a serial dilution of a stock amylase solution to create standards of known concentration
Bind known a..

This kit is designed to teach 8 groups of four students the principles of restriction digestion and agarose electrophoresis. The kit contains the reagents to allow students to:
Set up restriction digests of the p-Amylase plasmid with two enzymes
Set up positive and negative controls for the ..

This kit is designed to teach 8 groups of four students the principles of bacterial transformation.
The kit contains the reagents to allow students to:
Generate E.coli comptent cells
Transform competent cells with the p-Amylase plasmid
Grow transformed colonies on selection pl..

This kit is designed to teach 8 groups of four students the principles of plasmid DNA purification by minipreps.
The kit contains the reagents to allow students to:
Collect p-Amylase-transformed bacteria from an overnight culture
Resuspend bacteria, lyse and isolate the p-Amylas..

This kit is designed to teach 8 groups of four students the principles of Ion Exchange Chromatography and protein purification. The kit contains the reagents to allow students to:
Equilibrate a DEAE agarose column
Load a protein sample on the column (amylase, lysozyme or a mixture of b..

This kit is designed to teach 8 groups of four students the principles of Western blotting.
The kit contains the reagents to allow students to:
Conduct a serial dilution of a stock amylase solution
Prepare samples for PAGE electrophoresis
Separate proteins by electrophoresis
..